Thursday, January 8, 2009

NGO reps in municipal councils should remain

Referring to the recent statement made by the Penang PKR Chairman Datuk Zahrain who chaired the State Pakatan Rakyat Council meeting, suggested that the non-performing NGO representatives in the municipal councils of Seberang Perai (MPSP) and Penang (MPPP) should be dropped and replaced with representatives from the Pakatan Rakyat component parties.

We felt that such move would be inappropriate as this will derived the NGO’s representation from the local governance. In fact, the allocated seats for the NGOs to be both MPSP and MPPP councilors should remain as it is because we had already committed an open and transparency concept, where the local governance level should be participated by all, including those outside Pakatan Rakyat.

If these NGO councilors are not performing as claimed by Datuk Zahrain earlier, then we speak to the respective organizations concerned and ask them to get us the replacement when the incumbents’ term expires.